A group of motherboard enthusiasts working for GIGABYTE, sharing their insider knowledge and general ramblings of the motherboard business, the tech industry, latest technologies and trends, and other random odds and ends.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Tweaktown just put up a first full video introduction of the new X58A-OC board. Hicookie and Colin explained the main features and also gave a price indication to Cameron as well, check out the full story here!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Duck-san is a famous Japanese overclocker and a world record holder on numerous occasions. His shares his wealth of knowledge from time to time on forums and blogs.

We came across a very interesting writeup about Sandy Bridge overclocking and topics related to it recently and wanted to share a link for some interesting reading. The link is translated from Japanese to English so some translations are not perfect but it’s certainly not hard to understand through context.

Duck uses the P67A-UD7 to hit close to 5.6GHz OC and talks about some interesting peculiarities when it comes to overclocking the new generation boards and CPUs.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

As the new B3 stepping GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards start to ship, we have updated the GIGABYTE 6 Series SATA Check utility so that it also identifies the chipset and its stepping as either ‘Revision: B2’ or ‘Revision: B3’ as can be seen in the screenshots below.

James, youngpro, from TeamAU did a quick preview of the new X58A-OC board on Xtremesystems while he waits for his LN2 to come I hear and did a quick performance comparison between a few different boards as well as a video showing OC-Touch.

One of the images on the forum linked above shows a 32M SuperPi (RAM benchmark) with ram running at 1272Mhz on air cooling in dual channel (Corsair GTX6 1GB modules). He says he would normally use 1GB modules in dual channel rather than a single channel 4GB for LN2 CPU testing to reduce load on IMC. Good thinking 99!

We’ve recently written about GIGABYTE Sandy Bridge P67 boards absolutely dominating the 3DMARK01 rankings due to much better efficiency than any of its competitors’ boards. It is now evident that is the case with top 10 results using different variations of GIGABYTE P67 boards from UD4, UD5 and UD7 in Nvidia GTX580 category for example.

Monday, February 21, 2011

I want to go into the main features in a bit more detail to give you a better understanding what they do and how they could potentially improve your OC experience. Main features include:

OC-VRM

OC-Touch

OC-PEG

OC-Cool

OC-Dual BIOS

OC-VRM

Hiding under the heatsink are the new 50A rated driver MOS chips used to deliver up to 600A(1200W) load via 12 phases. Dual power design is still in place providing redundant phase power and great phase control.

Dual 8pin power input support up to 720A (1500W).

PWM switch allows “on the fly” PWM frequency adjustment from 600, 800 & 1000KHz (default is 400KHz). This can be handy during initial CPU testing to see what frequencies get the most out of the chips at different loads. It can be done in windows so while doing your CPU testing flick to different frequency and see what works best.

Surface mount POSCAP tantalum capacitors used on the whole board for quality and low clearance.

OC-TOUCH

Highlighted here from left to right are LED BIOS POST codes for troubleshooting, measurement points for most important voltage read points named in photo, 4G button allowing a one touch 4GHz OC and a row of buttons allowing real time “on the fly”, hardware level ratio and bclock adjustment.

Real time multiplier or bclock changes used to be done via EasyTune and still can be but for the most part all overclockers will change primarily are ratios and bclock once they know which settings work best. There are a lot of applications for ratio and bclock adjustment buttons such as booting at multi your CPU likes and clocking up bclock. This is one of the best ways to max out most chips and also improve efficiency related to system setting tweaking.

OC-PEG

Aside from independent power input to each PCIe slot on the board, additional two SATA power connectors are provided to boost power to PCIe slots in 3/4WAY GPU configurations during benching. There won’t be a need to route Molex cables in between pots underneath the last GPU pot any more. This location is much easier to reach and it won’t even need insulating most likely as it sits a long way away from GPU pots.

OC-COOL

New heatsink design is used on the board. There are also 7x 4-pin fan headers which will all be independently controlled through bios for the first time! LED lights on northbridge cooler breaking through LN2 clouds during benching looks OC-Cool (pun intended hehe).

OC-Dual BIOS

Dual bios files are used on the board as it’s been a standard on all GIGABYTE boards however there is a little twist with the OC board. This board allows users to switch between bios files so you can select which bios to boot from. You might want to have a superpi bios and a 3D bios let’s say allowing to easily boot from the preferred bios. Switch is located at the far end of the board making it easily accessible in multi GPU configurations.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

This is a nice shot of the OC PEG (PCI Express Graphics) and OC-Touch features on the X58A-OC. The two SATA power in connectors on either side of the SATA ports can be fed power from a 2nd and 3rd PSU if need be - just found a use for that old 400W PSU that's been lying around.

I was just commenting to a friend this morning that we’re in a pretty happy place at GIGABYTE at the moment; I don’t remember a time when we’ve had so many unique products all at once (referring to the G1-Killer, X58A-OC and P67A-UD7 boards).

Friday, February 18, 2011

Sin0822 is at it again! This time he has a look at G1 Assassin motherboard and as you’d expect from his previous writeups he gets down and dirty with the finer details and components used to make the board. It’s a very nice read for people that want to find out more about these awesome new gaming boards.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

I did a quick video to show users how to copy the main bios to backup bios.

Updating the backup bios to something newer is not a bad idea as it helps calm down the dual bios trigger from overreacting a bit early and it also allows users to once again use Qflash bios update utility rather than windows based flash such as @BIOS.

Hey guys, here’s a quick shout out to everyone about another new feature we have with the X58A-OC board called OC Touch. It’s essentially a hardware level overclocking feature capable of adjusting the multiplier and bclock on the fly in or out of the operating system.

I’ve got a video here that hicookie made today to give you an idea how it works. He’s got the new Core i7 990X installed, LN2 pot running at -170C+, CPU boots at 6.4Ghz (178*36) and then gets clocked up using OC Touch bclock buttons to 7.1GHz (197*36). Easy!

A keen eye can spot some other interesting things we’ll get to in the future updates so stay tuned!

Mad222 is probably better known for his AMD results but it seems he’s getting some decent overclocks with Intel Sandy Bridge platform with this monster overclock using a Core i5 2500K CPU at a ridiculous 5827Mhz frequency! Easily the fastest 2500K so far. He said he used the P67A-UD7 with F7e bios at –80C.

Lab501 and GIGABYTE had a cool overclocking party recently. Lab501 is the home of current world champion overclocker Matose crowned the winner of GOOC2010 at the end of last year.

Did I mention they were benching on Xmas and New Year’s Eve too, LOL! Actually I should be more precise, they stopped benching 16 minutes before New Year’s Eve hahahaha! That’s dedication right there. Check out the little Xmas tree at the back of the first photo.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Talk about perfect timing! Intel’s long awaited new flagship desktop CPU, the Core i7 990x, just went on sale at newegg in the USA. Remarkably the first G1.Assassin motherboards ship from Taiwan this very week, while Kingston just provided a sneak peak at their new HyperX Black memory in a short youtube video. Needless to say, the system being used includes the G1.Assassin together with the Core i7 990x CPU.

Find out more about the G1-Killer series of gaming motherboards from the official GIGABYTE G1-Killer microsite.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The numbering of SATA ports on a motherboard can be confusing, but once it has been explained to you it makes perfect sense. The 1st SATA port on a P67 chipset mobo is called SATA3_0 where SATA3 refers to Serial ATA 3.0 that runs at 6Gbps. If it were to read SATA2 then it refers to Serial ATA 2.0 that runs at 3Gbps. The number following the underscore (_) refers the SATA port number. Here is a typical SATA port layout as seen on the GIGABYTE P67A-UD3P:

In the picture above the white ports are the two SATA3 ports (SATA3_0 and SATA3_1) that are not affected by Intel’s recent announcement. The black ports (SATA2_2 through SATA2_5) carry the risk of performance degradation over time.

The following chart shows which 6 series mobo SATA ports are risk free. There is a key below the chart that explains some of the abbreviations.

Key:

ESATA: External SATA port

GSATA: Additional SATA3 ports (GIGABYTE SATA ports)

09 Feb Update: The chart has been updated to include the GA-P67A-UD3R, as well as adding an additional SATA2 port to the GA_P65A-UD3 row.

SuperPi is one of those old school benchmarks which will just never go away because no matter what new generation of CPUs and boards come out, it provides a very good indication of platform efficiency when it comes to system and memory tuning. This benchmarks takes up a huge amount of time and effort which is what Mad222 has put in, first from his tireless benching and tweaking and also from his search for the golden CPU.

Today marks the day of one of those amazing achievements which are rarely seen and can’t come often enough. First sub-10minute AMD 32M SuperPi went down overnight in Hong Kong at an astonishing 6991.7Mhz frequency using GIGABYTE’s flagship 890FXA-UD7 motherboard and an AMD Phenom II X4 965 CPU.

This truly belongs in SuperPi Hall of Fame. Congratulations and keep pushing it as the famous Dane would say!

Friday, February 4, 2011

The news of the SATA 2.0 issues with Intel 6 series chipsets has sparked a lot of uncertainty about how this will affect those of us who upgraded to the new Sandy Bridge architecture. Essentially, if you’re using 1 or 2 SATA devices then this chipset issue need not affect you at all because you can connect your devices to the 2 white SATA 3.0 ports. However, if you’re using 3 or more SATA devices, you may want to prioritise your more important devices on the white SATA 3.0 ports (e.g. hard drive with your operating system on it) and the less important devices on the Intel PCH SATA 2.0 ports (e.g. a DVD ROM).

To help our customers optimise SATA performance on their 6 series mobos, GIGABYTE has created an easy to use utility called the GIGABYTE 6 Series SATA Check that tells you if the SATA ports that you are using are in fact the affected Intel PCH SATA 2.0 ports. It also recommends that you change your SATA devices to the white SATA 3.0 ports. The utility is a simple program that will work on any 6 series chipset based mobo, and has 3 possible scenarios that offer advice for users to configure their SATA devices. To operate, simply copy this utility to your P67/H67 system’s Windows desktop and unzip, then double click the “67sfck.exe” file.

The 1st scenario is where there are no devices connected to the affected Intel PCH SATA 2.0 ports, and the utility will let you know that your SATA configuration is OK.

The 2nd scenario is where your devices are all connected to the affected Intel PCH SATA 2.0 ports, and the utility will advise you to (Please) move 1 or 2 devices from Intel PCH SATA 2.0 ports to the free SATA 3.0 ports.

The 3rd scenario is where you have devices connected to the affected Intel PCH SATA 2.0 ports and the SATA 3.0 ports are also populated. Here the utility will advice you that the “Use of (the) Intel PCH SATA 2.0 ports is not recommended.”

Thursday, February 3, 2011

HWBOT.ORG ran an AMD Highest Clock competition last month and the usual suspects participated in this round with Mad222 taking it out in style with an incredible world record AMD frequency at 7344MHz and highest 1M SuperPi time as well. Congrats to MILANS from Poland on second place and chew* from USA on third. Well done everyone!

Top 3 contestants and 2 lucky draw winners will take this snazzy new E350N-USB3 boards as prizes.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

A: As explained by Intel®, after a period of usage the SATA 2 ports on motherboards based on Intel® 6 series B2 stepping chipsets may experience decreasing performance. This issue applies to all motherboards based on Intel 6 series chipsets from every vendor. However, it will not be an issue for systems that connect to the SATA 3 ports only. Intel® announced this issue and stated that they stand behind their products and are committed to product quality in the following online alert: “Alert for Intel® 6 Series Express Chipsets and Intel® Xeon® C200 Chipsets users” which release by Intel, Jan 31st, 2011.http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-032263.htm

Q: What models have been affect by this issue?

A: All GIGABYTE P67/H67/P65/PH67 chipset motherboards with B2 stepping 6 series chipsets are effected. All other GIGABYTE models based on other chipsets are not affected, and GIGABTYE continues to be committed to the highest product and service quality standards.

Q: What action should I take if I have already purchased a GIGABYTE 6 series motherboard?

A: Firstly, please determine your computer setup. No action will be needed if you only use the SATA 3 ports. If you are using the SATA2 ports, then there are possibilities that the device’s performance will decrease after a period of usage. To ensure the highest standard of customer support & services, GIGABYTE recommends that all customers who purchased GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards contact their local dealer (retail store where you purchased the motherboard) at the end of April for a motherboard exchange. GIGABYTE will provide an equivalent new motherboard replacement.

Q: What is the GIGABYTE swap policy for GIGABYTE 6series motherboards?

A: GIGABYTE will provide a replacement motherboard with the new 6 series chipset onboard at the end of April in order to reduce any inconvenience to our customers who are affected by this issue.

Q: What is the SOP for GIGABYTE 6 series motherboard exchange?

A: At the end of April please take your 6 series motherboard to the same store where you originally purchased it. If the product is not available at that time, please leave the series number and your personal contact details with the store and wait for further notice.

Q: When will the replacement be available?

A: According to Intel’s production plan, the 6 series B3 stepping chipset will be available by April, 2011. GIGABYTE will produce and ship replacement motherboards according to Intel’s chipset shipping schedule.

Q: For further information or enquiries regarding GIGABYTE 6 series motherboards, please contact your local distributor or visit the GIGABYTE website at http://www.gigabyte.com/.

Taipei, Taiwan – February 1, 2011 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards and other computing hardware solutions, today announced that GIGABYTE has been alerted by Intel about a 6 series chipset design error. GIGABYTE is working closely with Intel® to minimize the inconvenience to customers and retail stores with regard to related issues.

A recent statement from Intel <http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/sb/CS-032263.htm> indicates that they expect full 6 series chipset volume recovery in April, 2011. GIGABYTE will produce and deliver new motherboards with the updated Intel 6 series chipset when the new chipsets become available. GIGABYTE prides itself in having the highest service quality in the industry, and as such we will resolve this issue with minimal impact on our customers.